Carbon nanotubes have excellent properties such as electrical properties, high Young's modulus and tensile strength, and high thermal conductivity.
In carbon nanotubes prepared by the conventional chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, the proportion of the metallic carbon nanotubes (m-CNTs) and the semiconducting carbon nanotubes (s-CNTs) is typically about 1:2.
It has been impossible to directly grow s-CNTs with higher purity. Meanwhile, the chirality of carbon nanotubes cannot be arbitrarily changed during growth, in the prior art. Semiconducting carbon nanotube segments and metallic carbon nanotube segments cannot be alternately formed during growth according to need. Thus, carbon nanotubes with alternating semiconducting carbon nanotube segments and metallic carbon nanotube segments have not been available for carbon nanotube structures or in the application of carbon nanotube structures, such as thin film transistors, light detectors, and photoelectric conversion modules.
Therefore, there is room for improvement within the art.